Scotland could meet up to 10% of Europe’s predicted hydrogen import demand through a new backbone link as soon as the mid-2030s, according to a report.
The Net Zero Technology Centre (NZTC) was backed with £16.7mn of funding from the Scottish government back in 2021 to support a programme of work around seven strategic energy projects. One of these was the Hydrogen Backbone Link (HBL), helping to position Scotland in a leading role for the development of pan-European hydrogen infrastructure, for which the first phase of work has now concluded.
Through this, the NZTC found that after reviewing multiple options for repurposing existing pipe infrastructure, a new purpose-built pipeline route is preferable. The ideal route would be between Scotland’s east coast and Emden in Germany, costing around £2.7bn – still “significantly cheaper” than all other transport options. It would create 700 jobs in the 2030s across Scotland, before supporting up to 300,000 by 2045.
When balancing what would be higher production costs with lower transportation costs, Scottish green hydrogen would be cost competitive with other globally sourced hydrogen from countries and regions that benefit from lower production costs. This includes the likes of Canada, Chile and the Middle East.
It also noted that existing technologies, such as valve and flow meter designs, are transferable over to hydrogen service with only minimal modifications, while assuring that the Hydrogen Backbone Link would serve as a crucial enabler for new and existing Scottish green hydrogen projects, de-risking investment decisions and accelerating project deployment.
However, to fully capture the opportunities at hand, action is needed, not least a rapid acceleration of investment to ensure that the backbone pipeline is delivered by the mid-2030s, and that investment continues from government and industrial collaborations in hydrogen and wind deployments to deliver security of supply.
It also called for a National Energy Storage Strategy to be developed, delivering an integrated renewables and hydrogen storage system for 2030 and beyond; for cross border policy alignment between governments and key stakeholders to facilitate deployment at pace; to diversify existing energy skills and ensure a pipeline of talent throughout the supply chain; and for technological development and infrastructure deployment to turn vision into reality over the next years.
Looking to closing the technology gap, the NZTC is advocating for rapid development, deployment and scale up of storage solutions at operational, buffer and inter-seasonal scales, noting it to be essential to supporting the delivery of the Hydrogen Backbone Link. It also said hydrogen should be used as a test medium, with experimental testing of existing meter designs required to verify calibration ranges and confirm operational limits, while emerging compressor technologies such as turbo, electrochemical and compact centrifugal designs could have a tangible impact on the delivery of the HBL.
